April 7, 2016

ATHENS, GA. – The Bulldog Decathlon-Heptathlon competition came to a close Thursday at Spec Towns Track in Georgia, with Sarah Graham and Alexandre Asselin wrapping up their events. Graham closed as strong as the started to earn the third-highest heptathlon in school history, and Asselin became the sixth Gamecock ever to crack 7,000 points in the decathlon.

Fresh off a four-PR day on Wednesday to begin the heptathlon, Graham proved to be equally dominant in her final three events. She came just a few inches shy of a new personal best in the long jump despite facing a head wind, but rallied to earn new personal bests in the javelin (100′ 3″) and the 800m to finish her competition.

Her final tally of 5,423 points pushed her up to third in school history with the best score since Tacita Bass back in 2001. It also moved her up to 13th in the country based on scores entering the week.

Asselin had five events ahead on him to close out the decathlon, and he too entered the day with a chance at a new high score. He started with season bests in the 110m hurdles and discus, but broke through in his final three events.

His charge started with a new personal best in the pole vault after clearing 14-11, he then followed with a javelin PR (at 159-11) and capped his competition with a 14-second improvement on his previous best time in the 1500m. That final raced pushed him to a final point total of 7,110, the fifth-best in program history and into 15th nationally for this season. He finished 12th overall in the field.